Sao Paulo , Brazil -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- After years of trying to put the past behind it , Brazil has created a truth commission to investigate crimes committed during a painful period in history known as the dirty war .

Hundreds of people disappeared or were killed during a 20-year military dictatorship that ended in 1985 . Violent student protests and an armed underground movement were squashed in brutal crackdowns .

Some 9,000 people were jailed and tortured . Among them was a young leftist guerrilla , Dilma Rousseff , who went on to become the current president of Brazil .

Rousseff inaugurated the commission in May .

`` Brazil deserves the truth . The new generations deserve the truth , '' she said at a ceremony in Brasilia .

`` Above all , those who lost friends and relatives and who continue suffering as if they were dying again every day deserve the truth , '' she said as she choked back tears .

A blanket amnesty law drawn up during the dictatorship means the commission wo n't launch any trials . But some Brazilians hope it could be a first step toward having that law abolished , something that has already happened in neighboring Argentina and Uruguay .

Torture victims have long fought for a change to the law .

Amelia Teles was jailed in 1972 along with her husband at a Sao Paulo police station once known as OBAN , a notorious torture center .

`` That 's where my cell was , it was ` X6 , ' '' Teles said as she walked around the now-reformed police station . `` From what I remember , I was tortured for 15 days . ''

Teles and her husband were militants of the underground Communist Party . She said police brought in their children , ages 4 and 5 , to pressure them .

`` When -LRB- the children -RRB- saw me , they said , ` Mom , why is Dad green and you 're blue ? ' '' Teles said . `` I looked down at my body and realized I was so bruised that I was blue all over . ''

Teles pointed to the second-story rooms where she said she suffered waterboarding and electric shocks and spent hours in a device called the `` parrot 's perch . ''

`` I spent days without any hope of surviving , '' she said . `` But the fact that I can come here and speak and not be jailed ... I think that 's progress . That 's a political victory . ''

The seven-member truth commission has been given two years to investigate human rights crimes . It has unprecedented access to former prisoners , military leaders and archives .

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro , one of the commissioners and a former diplomat at the United Nations , said the group hopes to expose information that has been hidden for the last 27 years .

`` We are trying to reconstruct the chain of command of the decisions to kill or torture , '' Pinheiro said . `` Something that 's not clear or transparent at this moment . ''

The government has had to overcome outright hostility from retired military brass , and the commission is now grappling with the possibility that some of the archives may have been destroyed . But Pinheiro is optimistic the commission will help Brazil come to terms with its past and a legacy of impunity in some institutions .

`` There are some practices by state agents , like torture or summary executions , that need to be stopped , '' he said . `` The report , the work of the truth commission , will be a collaboration to deal with this terrible legacy . ''

Many Brazilians agree that exposing the truth is a way of exacting justice .

Ivo Herzog was 9 years old when his father , the editor-in-chief of a TV station , was killed while in jail .

Military officials called it a suicide . But Herzog said he believes his father , Vladimir Herzog , was tortured and killed , a theory that archives have supported .

Herzog said he does n't want revenge , but he does want the perpetrators to be known .

`` To be held accountable by society , '' he said , `` that 's the most important thing . ''

More and more Brazilians are calling for the same . A group of young activists has started organizing protests outside the homes of former military rulers to denounce them to their neighbors and society at large .

`` These people who are living the good life like nothing happened , I want to see them excluded , '' Herzog said . `` That 's my biggest wish . ''

Brazil Supreme Court starts massive corruption trial

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A commission is being set up to investigate human rights crimes in Brazil

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Thousands were jailed or tortured during a military dictatorship that ended in 1985

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President Dilma Rousseff : `` The new generations deserve the truth ''

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The commission has access to former prisoners , military leaders and archives